After the first few weeks of the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup, it appeared the championship was down to three drivers.

For the last couple of weeks, it’s been down to two: Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson.

And that’s OK.

As rumors circulated of potential Chase format changes a few years ago, there was a lot of talk about eliminating drivers and possibly resetting points during the Chase. For instance, maybe NASCAR would cut the number of drivers to five or six and reset the points midway through the Chase.

Or maybe NASCAR would do the reset even later, with one, two or three races to go, narrowing the contenders down to three or four.

That way, NASCAR would almost guarantee it would be more than just a two-driver battle when the season gets to Homestead for the finale.

But the format is just fine. The Chase was, and still is, a great move by NASCAR. It takes a dozen (or a baker’s dozen) drivers and puts them all in the mix to duke it out for 10 weeks.

The Chase has the right number of drivers and the right number of races. It keeps part of the racing philosophy that consistency should matter when crowning a champion but also allows for a playoff-like feel, with the team that performs the best at the end of the season reaping the big payday.

Teams that have engines fail or parts break or drivers who get in wrecks shouldn’t just get a mulligan. It’s part of the sport’s DNA that drivers and teams are supposed to achieve greatness on a weekly basis.

But those parts failures do happen. And a 10-race Chase allows drivers the opportunity to come back from one bad day. A points reset with just one or two races to go makes a broken part or just bad luck too much of a variable. A driver could dominate a full season and have it all wiped out because of a $5 piece that breaks. That’s what could happen if NASCAR reset the points during the Chase.

Some fans could argue that playoffs in other sports have a series in which the entire slate is wiped clean. But in other sports, it is possible for a team to come back from an error or a bad game. And those teams don’t compete against 42 other teams each day. And they can’t get “caught up in someone else’s mess” and have it ruin their day.

So it makes sense that drivers have a chance to bounce back from such mishaps, even though it means they need similar mishaps to happen to others.

There are other ways NASCAR can spice up the Chase. Changing the tracks in the Chase is one of them by eliminating some of the intermediate tracks in favor of more road courses or short tracks. That would create more dicey circumstances for drivers to navigate in order to get through unscathed. And it would keep a driver who excels at one type of track from having too much of an advantage.

NASCAR also could potentially keep more drivers involved if it awarded more points for a win. That would make wins in the Chase more important and give additional drivers and their fans a bit of hope. It might be false hope and a long shot, but at least the possibility would be there.

Drivers often talk about the intense pressure of the Chase, that there’s no way to match the focus needed to perform over the final 10 weeks. That’s the way it should be. It taxes an entire team to the brink of exhaustion.

While disappointing to see so many drivers out of contention so early this year, part of the reason is the exceptional performances of both Johnson and Kenseth.

They should be rewarded for that performance and not have it wiped out by another points reset. They’ve been far and away the two best drivers over the last two months.

It will be fun to watch them battle for the title over the next two weeks. They earned that right, and thankfully the NASCAR points system allows them that opportunity.